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       The arm robot that can automatically cook fries is seen in this image taken at a "lab branch" of Bexburger in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, on Nov. 4, 2021. Seasoning and bagging duties are covered by an employee. (Mainichi/Shuji Ozaki)

       The arm robot that can automatically cook fries moves food onto a platform after cooking it, in this image taken at a Bexburger "lab branch" in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, on Nov. 4, 2021. (Mainichi/Shuji Ozaki)

       MINAMISOMA, Fukushima -- A Tokyo-based company notable for developing soba robots that have been introduced at train stations in the capital region has begun testing a robotic arm that makes fries at a burger restaurant here.

       Until February 2022, people in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, will be able to try the fries -- served up by the robot developed at Connected Robotics Inc. -- and burgers for free. The company, which began testing the robot Nov. 4, aims to have the robot in use at outlets next year, and it is also eyeing development of a burger maker. It claims the burger store is the first one in Japan where humans and robots work together.

       The new store is run by takeout burger store Bexburger, which started out in Tokyo's Kichijoji neighborhood. It was set up inside a container-like structure built in the parking lot of a Minamisoma shopping mall. There, behind the three employees making burgers and bagging fries, the robot operates quietly. It takes baskets of fries filled by human workers and plunges them into the fryer. After occasionally shaking the basket to loosen the fries, it finishes deep frying them, lifts the basket, drains it of oil and transfers it to the bagging station -- a platform equipped with a warmer. It can produce up to 120 servings an hour, the equivalent of a half to a full worker's labor.

       Bexburger sees its Minamisoma outpost as a "lab store," and it is offering residents free meals based on a reservation system while it continues to review taste, quality, and how the machine works with humans, among other issues.

       The Fukushima Prefecture outlet makes use of subsidies provided in connection with the Innovation Coast Framework, which aims to advance new industries on the coast of Fukushima Prefecture as part of recovery efforts following the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and the meltdowns at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings' Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. From next year, the robot will be introduced at Bexburger's Kichijoji store and others in the capital region, and there are plans to test a burger-making robot at the lab store.

       Connected Robotics' station soba robots started on-site testing in 2020, and currently they are in use at JR Higashi-Koganei Station in Tokyo and JR Kaihimmakuhari Station in neighboring Chiba Prefecture. Company CEO Tetsuya Sawanobori said: "We've brought the business forward with the conviction that we want to use the power of robots to revolutionize the kitchen. We want to go ahead looking into questions such as how they can smoothly provide products and to what extent the burden on workers can be reduced."

       Masamaro Hanamitsu, head of Bexburger, told the Mainichi Shimbun: "It's amazing we've got to the point where the robot can perform refined motions like shaking the potato fries. We want Minamisoma to be the starting point for creating a kind of shop the world has yet to see."

       (Japanese original by Shuji Ozaki, Minamisoma Local Bureau)

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